Preaching on the Level
Preaching on the Level 16 February 2025 Jeremiah 17:5-10 Psalm 1 1 Corinthians 15:12-20 Luke 6:17-26 For a teacher, where you sit when you teach makes a big difference. For teachers of an earlier era, the correct position was up the front and up high (hmm like this, really). Teaching was literally the imparting of knowledge from on high – nowadays educationalists are more likely to observe that students and teachers are all learners together and that teachers can best inspire students by being alongside them. On the same level. Matthew and Luke both inherit this story of a sermon that sets an agenda, almost like a mission statement, relatively early in Jesus’ career. But they each do something a bit different with it. Matthew, who understands Jesus as a new Moses for a new covenant, has Jesus like the original Moses delivering his manifesto on a mountain, from on high, which is a way of saying that the Sermon on the Mount has the authority of the Law brought down by Moses from Mt Sinai...